Uber security execs resign amid data breach fallout

Three senior managers from Uber Technologies’ security unit have reportedly resigned after the company’s new chief executive officer disclosed the massive Uber data breach and criticised past security practices, according to a report by Reuters.

The ride-hailing firm’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who was appointed as the company’s head in August, disclosed the data breach last month shortly after learning of it himself, saying that “none of this should have happened.”

The firm’s chief security officer Joe Sullivan, last week, was fired over his role in the 2016 Uber data breach cover up.

The incident reportedly compromised data belonging to over 57 million customers and about 600,000 drivers. The resignations came amid mounting frustration within Uber’s security team over Sullivan’s dismissal and the company’s handling of the public disclosure of the breach.

According to the Reuters report, which cited an Uber spokesperson, the three managers who resigned were Pooja Ashok, chief of staff for Sullivan; Prithvi Rai, a senior security engineer and the number two manager in the department; and Jeff Jones, who handled physical security.

Despite the resignation, Ashok and Jones will remain at the company until January to assist in transition, the report said.

A fourth individual, Uber’s head of Global Threat Operations, Mat Henley, began a three-month medical leave, said a separate source familiar with the situation.

Uber’s security practices are also under fire in a high-stakes legal battle with self-driving car company Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary.

Leadership in the firm’s security unit has been in turmoil since the termination last week of Sullivan and a deputy.

The company has also faced further scrutiny when it admitted that that it had paid $100,000 to hackers to delete stolen data from the October 2016 breach and kept it secret.